Rest Stops

One of the nice innovations in modern highway travel has been the rest stop. Years ago when cars generally had poor mileage and highways passed through towns and cities frequently, one could stop at a convenient gas station. With the development of the Interstate Highway System and cars that can run over 300 miles on a tank of gasoline, a need for pit stops between gasoline fill-ups became a necessity, hence the freeway rest stop.

Our first extended road travel took place in Europe in 1955. We drove from Pirmasens, Germany through the Loire Valley of France to the Atlantic Coast and then south to San Sebastian, Spain. Passing through Madrid, Valencia and Barcelona we again entered France along its Riviera Coast and into Italy. In Italy we drove through Genoa, Leghorn, Pisa, Florence and Venice before driving through the Alps into Switzerland and then back to our apartment in Germany. Highways were two lanes and passed through every town in sight. Rest stops were a bit of a problem but coffee shops, restaurants and gasoline stations offered relief. What we did notice in many places, especially Germany, that people stopped their cars and relieved themselves along the side of the road. Road travel was slow: in Italy the highway would climb into the mountains and wind and twist until the next important water front when we would descend to sea level and fight urban traffic until the next ascent. We damaged our car hitting a chuck hole in Spain and had to crawl to a nearby small town where a blacksmith reattached the rocker arm for a fee of $2.00 US. In a small town in northern Italy the spectators to a bicycle race politely parted to let us cross the course for a block or two to continue on our way. Climbing through the Swiss Alps the clutch on our 1953 Morris Minor got so hot we had to stop and let it cool off. With a 28 HP motor we had been traveling in 2nd gear. But we were young and adventurous.

Our first cross country trip in the US was in July 1958 when we drove from Brooklyn, NY to San Diego, CA, along with our 13 month-old twins. While President Eisenhower had launched the Interstate Highway program in 1957, there was nothing in place on our route. So stops were motels, restaurants and gas stations and travel was slowed by the need to pass through every town and city on route.

Express highways and rest stops had come into being in the 1930's, however, in limited areas of the East. New York built a series of expressways connecting the city to the suburbs. Examples include the Hutchinson River and Bronx River parkways and the Inter-Boro Parkway. One or two of these parkways had gasoline stations built into the system. Pennsylvania began its Turnpike (a toll road) in the 1930's. We used it for part of our 1958 trip and the traffic had grown enough so that there were backups trying to get through the two lane mountain tunnels that had not been expanded since the 1930's-40's. But the most traveled and perhaps best known was the New Jersey Turnpike which I believe was started just after World War II. Since the turnpikes and expressways bypassed towns and cities, bathroom and fuel facilities had to be provided as adjuncts.

The most successful model of a turnpike rest stop to my mind are those of New Jersey. Large facilities with two different brands of gasoline and an array of fast food outlets, often packed with travelers. Maryland and Delaware followed this model along their Interstate Highways and their rest stops are quite similar. My assumption is that the respective states have granted concessions to the private companies that provide the services and the rest stops are in effect profit centers for the affected Turnpike Authority or state.

In Virginia, Arizona and a number of other states a different model was followed. The rest stops are public facilities, funded with state money that offer rest rooms, picnic areas and a few vending machines. These often are pleasant places to stop. But if you're looking for food or gasoline you leave the Interstate at one of the truly built up exits where one can find up to a mile's length on both sides of gasoline stations, restaurants and motels.

The flaw in this model is public funding. In the current deep recession almost all of the states confront serious fiscal deficits and seek means of cutting expenses. Both Virginia and Arizona have closed at least half of their Interstate rest stops. I don't know the rationale for the public funding option - opposition to fast food concessionaires from merchants in towns near the Interstate, or an aesthetic distaste for the commercialization of rest stops, but the result has been facilities that cost taxpayers instead of those that contribute to state income. In today's economy New Jersey and Maryland are looking good! Cheers to private enterprise!